Blandin on Broadband

I was able to attend the meeting with Senator Klobuchar at Pine Technical College thanks to an invitation granted by former state Senator Becky Lourey. It was very interesting. Senator Klobuchar showed off her sense of humor by crediting my input at her St. Paul hearing with getting $9 billion for broadband in the stimulus package.

Pine City and Pine Technical College should get some credit for working hard to improve broadband accessibility in the area. Pine City Schools are connected to the ECMECC school collaborative that has a robust network connecting school districts across the region; this network was done in collaboration with US Cable and possibly other providers. The community has an interesting partnership with Pine Technical College where the college serves as a hub for telecommunications. I am not sure of all the arrangements, but I think that it is unique. The City was smart to place conduit in the ground when it redid its main street and now they have fiber that connects the city, county and industrial park that connects back to the college. The community’s main concerns are affordability and access to Main Street businesses and accessibility into the rural areas of the region.

Becky Lourey has a great reputation as an entrepreneur and she runs a growing electronic medical records company in Askov and Bruno employing many local residents and serving clients across the country. Her business networks have great need for connectivity and security. While that connectivity is a challenge, they are making a go of it stretching the capabilities of the incumbent providers. As the only power user in that community, it is a challenge with today’s marketplace for get a provider to invest in the network and for the provider to then sell the service at an affordable price. This may be a great place for a DEED infrastructure grant to be used for telecommunications. Or maybe some stimulus money! In addition, Becky Lourey also cited the need for people in that area to be able to use broadband for distance learning. She said that for many, the connectivity price is not affordable.

On a separate note, I was reviewing the list of shovel ready projects that were submitted to the MN Ultra High Speed Task Force. One of those requests was from Qwest. Their proposal was to provide ubiquitous DSL coverage in their rural exchanges. There was no price tag on the Qwest proposal. I was also disappointed to see that the White Bear Lake Central Office was not on the list; my home in Mahtomedi is just a few blocks from White Bear Lake and there is no DSL service here. Pine City and other regional communities were on that list. Minnesota will have to determine what it wants for its future in statewide broadband. While a 1 Mb DSL connection would be a great improvement for those areas that now rely on satellite or dial-up, is this a big enough leap forward with yesterday’s technology to justify the investment?